


You're Safe Here

by mallardeer



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 14:23:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10538328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mallardeer/pseuds/mallardeer
Summary: Lena needs somewhere to go; where else would she go but Kara's?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Tryin' my hand at the old "oh no there is only one bed" trope.

“Are you sure you’re all right here, Ms. Luthor?” Supergirl asks, worriedly chewing her bottom lip.    
   
“Yes, thank you. My security system is state of the art,” Lena replies rather stiffly. She’s certainly not all right, not after the third attempt on her life in as many weeks, but her pride won’t allow her to ask Supergirl for more than she’s already given her.    
   
“Okay,” Supergirl says dubiously, and Lena can see there’s something she wants to say, but she ends up just smiling sadly. “Good night, then,” she says.   
   
“Good night,” Lena says softly, and then Supergirl is gone.    
   
Supergirl is so alien, practically godlike, and Lena’s never been keen on asking favors from the gods. But there is one person she feels comfortable turning to when she needs help. It’s well past midnight, but she cannot stay at home alone.    
   
Kara spends twenty minutes pacing her apartment, trying to figure out how she can check on Lena in the middle of the night without giving up her secret. In the end, she realizes she can't and dejectedly slips into pajamas and brushes her teeth. Not five minutes later, someone bangs on her door. Cursing for letting herself be surprised, she turns her x-ray vision to the front of her apartment. Lena, to her utter dismay but undeniable relief, is standing outside, arms wrapped around her waist. Kara all but flies to the door.    
   
“Lena!” she says, trying to sound surprised instead of angry. “Is everything all right?” She is furious that Lena has left the safety of her own apartment, that she is standing here alone after so nearly getting killed.  

Before Lena can reply, she tugs her inside and closes and bolts the door behind them. “My brother is getting very…intent on doing away with me,” Lena says grimly, and Kara frowns.   
   
“What are you doing out here so late, then?”   
   
“I couldn’t be alone," she says, and then seems to think better of it. "I’m sorry… I don’t know what I was thinking, coming here.”   
   
“No, stop,” Kara begs, putting a hand on Lena’s arm. “You can always come here. I’m just worried about you, alone at night, if Lex is trying to kill you!” She nearly shrieks that last part, and shuts her eyes, trying to will some control over herself. She clears her throat. “I mean, you should have called me—I would have come over.”   
   
“And it’s safer for you alone in the middle of the night?”   
   
“Yes,” Kara says, exasperated. “Lex Luthor is not trying to have me killed.” At least, not yet he isn't.    
 

Lena takes a shuddering breath, and Kara suddenly realizes she’s on the verge of tears, and all her frustration disappears. “I’m sorry. You don’t need a lecture from me. I’m here to help, Lena, whatever you need.” 

“Why?” Lena asks plaintively, and the dam breaks. The tears fall fast and free, and she hates it, hates to be so weak in front of this woman she’s only ever wanted to impress. But there's still this part of her that cannot accept that someone wants to help her with no ulterior motives.    
   
Kara steps forward and gathers her into her arms, and Lena lets herself fall, little by little, into the comfort and security of her embrace. “You’re my friend; that’s why,” Kara says softly, but Lena only sobs harder.  

Seeing Lena so vulnerable breaks Kara’s heart a bit, but she doesn’t know what else to do except hold her so she can cry. Eventually, Lena pulls away, and Kara can see a slight flush on her cheeks. “God, I am sorry, Kara. What must you think of me?” she says, trying for a laugh, but it falls horribly flat.    
   
“Come on. How many times do I have to teach you what friendship is?” Kara teases, carefully wiping away Lena’s tears. That gets a small smile out of the other woman, so Kara takes a breath, relieved.    
   
“This is…far beyond what I know about friendship,” Lena admits, and there’s something to her tone that Kara can’t quite read.    
   
And maybe this isn’t friendship, exactly, maybe there’s something else growing too, but Kara has almost never been right about that kind of thing. She is too afraid to name it, in case she’s wrong, in case calling attention to it makes it disappear before they can claim it.  

“Well, either way, you can always come to me when you need help,” Kara pledges, and Lena’s eyes flutter shut.   
   
She cannot take the earnestness, the…obliviousness. How many times does she have to hint that what they’re doing is not what normal friends do before Kara gets the message? But she is so sweet and compassionate and worried about her that Lena will never let her see her frustration.  

“Thank you,” she manages, and Kara smiles at her. 

“You must be exhausted,” Kara says, steering her toward the bedroom. “You can borrow some pajamas and stay here. Okay?”   
   
“Okay,” Lena nods, because she is indeed exhausted. The adrenaline rush of another last- minute rescue by Supergirl has left her feeling completely drained. She finds herself, embarrassingly, wanting Kara to just pick her up and carry her to bed—but they’re hardly at that stage of their non-friendship.    
   
She accepts the sleep shorts and oversized t-shirt Kara offers and heads into the bathroom. Kara perches on the edge of her bed, waiting anxiously for her, wondering if she should offer the bed or assume they can share. And also wondering what could happen if they do share.  

“Maybe I’m not wrong?” she frets, but refuses to entertain that idea. She can’t act on anything tonight, not when Lena is so vulnerable. She’ll offer Lena the bed and go sleep on the couch. The important thing is that she'll know Lena is safe.

When Lena emerges from the bathroom in her pajamas, hair down, and face scrubbed of makeup, Kara’s breath catches in her throat. She’s always thought Lena was beautiful, but this is a whole new dimension, to see her without her usual trappings of sophistication. “Well, the bed’s yours. I’ll be on the couch if you need me,” Kara says, and her voice has this false heartiness to it that she hates.    
   
“Oh, no, please. I can’t turn you out of your bed. I’ll take the couch,” Lena argues.   
   
“No, no, I insist. You take the bed,” Kara says, still falsely cheerful, and Lena eyes her shrewdly.    
   
“There is room enough for both of us, if you’re comfortable with that,” she says softly, and Kara closes her eyes.    
   
She wants badly to be comfortable with that, but when she looks at Lena, who looks so lost and so hopeless, she knows she can’t—not like this. But when she opens her mouth, she ends up saying, “Okay,” in a very small voice.    
   
The smile Lena gives her in response erases some of her doubts, and so they climb into Kara’s bed. Kara puts out the light before slipping off her glasses and setting them on her bedside table. “I’m glad you’re here, Lena,” she whispers, and Lena stirs beside her.    
   
“Me too,” she says, swallowing hard.  

They both lie awake, trying to fool the other into believing they’re asleep, both careful not to let a finger stray nearer to the other side of the bed. Eventually, though, the events of the evening catch up with Lena, and she slips into sleep.  

Kara hears the moment her breathing changes to the deep and even rhythm of sleep, and carefully rolls on her side to look at Lena in the near darkness. She looks so much younger asleep, and Kara’s heart aches with the desire to protect her. And she realizes Supergirl is going to have to do something about Lex Luthor.  

But sleep claims her too, even in the middle of plotting to do away with the elder Luthor, and she is maybe a little closer to Lena’s side of the bed than she intended.  

Kara wakes up to sunlight streaming in through her windows. She blinks and starts to get up, but realizes that Lena is wrapped around her back, one hand resting possessively on her stomach. “Oh,” she breathes, and feels the blood rush to her face.   
   
She lies still for several moments, wondering if she’ll wake Lena if she tries to move. But then she worries that Lena will wake up and be mortified to discover herself in this position. And then she realizes that she doesn’t even want to move anyway. Maybe she can just… 

Lena wakes with a start and rolls over before pushing herself to her feet, seemingly oblivious to…everything. “Lena?” Kara calls softly. “Are you okay?”   
   
“Fine, I’m fine,” she insists. “Just…nightmare.” The last word is barely a whisper, and Kara goes to her, tugging Lena into her arms before she even realizes what she’s doing.    
   
“You’re safe here,” she says, and Lena goes rigid—but only for a moment. She lets herself collapse against Kara, who is all comfort and solidity, warmth and familiarity, and everything she’s wanted but been too proud, too afraid to ask for.    
   
Cautiously, she winds her arms around Kara’s neck and lets her head rest against Kara’s shoulder. To her surprise, she can hear Kara’s heart racing. “Lena,” she murmurs, gently nudging Lena’s forehead with her own. “Lena, can I…?” She trails off, suddenly embarrassed, and Lena is shocked and charmed to discover that Kara is trying to ask if she can kiss her.    
   
Wordlessly answering that unasked question is the easiest thing Lena has ever done.


End file.
